Melody Ross Murder Defendant Pleads No Contest

A teenager pleaded no contest Friday to manslaughter and attempted murder for the 2009 shooting of 16-year-old Wilson High School honor student Melody Ross as she walked across Ximeno Avenue after the homecoming football game.

Daivion Davis, 17, was expected to receive eight years and four months in juvenile custody when he is sentenced Sept. 13. His co-defendant, 18-year-old Tom Love Vinson, who allegedly fired the shot that killed Melody Ross, is scheduled to go on trial Monday.

As she and others crossed the street outside the school, Ross was killed Oct. 30, 2009, while leaving the homecoming game. Police said a fight broke out nearby between rival gang members, and Ross was shot in the crossfire. Two young men were wounded in the shooting. Davis, then 15, and Vinson, who was 16, were being prosecuted as adults.

Davis was expected to be sentenced to juvenile custody under the terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors. Vinson is charged with murder and four counts of attempted murder, along with allegations of using a handgun and committing a crime to benefit a street gang. He faces 210 years in prison if convicted.

Ross was a junior at Wilson, where she was on the track team and enrolled in Advanced Placement classes. Messages of remembrance from friends and strangers, and several parents, continue to pour onto the Facebook page for Melody Ross, R.I.P.  Many have videos or music attached. Her absence from graduation festivities in June was marked with a surge of notes.

While Davis and Vinson were awaiting trial, two teenage girls admitted last year that they dissuaded a witness in the case. Authorities said the girls approached a Wilson High School student on campus after he testified at a hearing in which Vinson and Davis were ordered to stand trial. They girls were both ordered to serve 30 days under house arrest and perform 100 hours of community service.

Their attorneys could not be reached late Friday for comment.

Shortly after the murder, Los Angeles Times editor and reporter Cathleen Decker wrote a moving piece that captures the loss that even strangers felt about the girl -- who should have graduated high school with her class in June, 2011:

"Sixteen years. Not long enough.

"Not long enough for Melody Ross to get her driver's license. Nor to maneuver the perils and promise of high school, much less college. Not long enough to figure out where life might take her. Nor actually to live it....

"In a matter of days, there were candlelight vigils and bake sales to help with the funeral. Songs and raps were written, filmed and sent out to the world, in her honor, via the Internet. Thousands of friends and strangers, kids and parents poured their emotions out to her on a memorial Web page, talking to her as if she were reading their words. Black shirts were worn in her honor in Long Beach. And in Washington. And Pennsylvania. And Canada.

"It was not that she was elite, or a superstar, or necessarily headed for international greatness. It was just that she was a normal kid -- friendly, embracing, kind, close to her family, a permanent smile on her face. It was just that her life was not long enough. But it was long enough to matter."

City News Service contributed to this report.